RISING STAR QUILT SHOW 2009
Featured Quilter, Carol Brown
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At the quit show, Carol spoke about the history and construction of the quilts that she selected for the show.
Each year, the guild features a Quilter or Quilters as a special part of the show. This year we are featuring Carol Brown, an accomplished quilter and long-time guild member. The purpose of the featured quilter exhibit is to explore the work of a representative member of the guild in some depth. We hope that this will give visitors to the show a deeper insight into quilting as a highly individual art form. We asked Carol to talk about what quilting means to her, and the following is what she had to say:
I learned to sew when I was a child, but I did not learn to quilt until I was fifty. At the first New England Images show in Topsfield I realized that quilts did not have to be dull, old-fashioned looking things but could be vibrant, exciting, architectural, tactile, beautiful....I went home and made a baby quilt out of leftover fabrics for a friend having her first child.
Today, I still think quilts have all those wonderful qualities and I try to create them in my own work. I usually draw my pattern on graph paper, often using traditional blocks in modern ways. Without art training it takes me a while to figure out what will look good expanded to full size.
As far as my personal style goes, I like bright colors and the challenge of finding fabrics that fit together with just enough clash to make the quilt "pop." I tend to make a few similar quilts, then get bored and try something else. The quilts I am showing today illustrate my tendency to spread myself over a range of techniques and styles.
I was a charter member of Rising Star Quilters. I continue to enjoy the monthly meetings, the companionship of fellow quilters including my Tuesday Morning bee, and my chance to take part in workshops and exhibitions.
I taught college for many years until I retired in 2002. My pleasure in teaching continues with my series of short talks called "Five Minutes to Better Quilting" at our monthly meeting with my friend Jeanne Funk-Geddes. The cat quilts com from one such talk.
My advice to new quilters is my First Law of Quilting, which is "It's your quilt, you can make it anyway you want," and it corollary, "If they don't like it they can make their own quilt." So don't worry about what other people think. Enjoy your own creativity.
Click on the pictures to see larger images of these quilts by Carol Brown .
Red Sky at Night, by Carol Brown
Original design.
Featured Large Quilt 62 x 62
I have always liked this star block. I also like centrally symmetrical patterns, so my design was inevitable. When I found a dozen new red fabrics last year, I knew what I wanted to do. The "crazy" areas are made with Jeanne Funk-Geddes� technique for making one fabric out of ten.
Cambridge Memories, by Carol Brown
Original design.
Featured Wall Quilt
I found this pattern in the instruction book, The Quilt Room, and fell in love with it. This is one of the few quilts I have made from a preexisting pattern. It is the only quilt I have ever made that is entirely hand sewn and hand quilted. It is probably the only one I will make by hand.
Cats, A Series, by Carol Brown
Original design.
Featured Wall Quilt
1. White cat in snowstorm, 2. Black cat at night, 3. Brown cat in mud, 4. Green cat in grass. I occasionally give a talk at our guild meetings that I call �Five Minutes to Better Quilting� with Jeanne Funk-Geddes. I have pointed out that there are many different shades, tints, and tones of any color. I also remind listeners that a quilt looks richer if a variety of fabrics in a color are used instead of one plain color. I have illustrated my point with these four pieces.
Early Sunday Morning: A Collaboration, by Carol Brown
Original design.
Featured Wall Quilt
My Tuesday Morning Bee always enters a quilt in the guild challenge. For the 2006 challenge �Black and White and....� we took Edward Hopper�s �Early Sunday Morning� , and cut it into sections. Each of us took one section and made our own variation in black, white and yellow. Billie Berents, Carol Brown, Kendra Dowd, Jeanne Funk-Geddes, Janice Gould, Penny Sanders, Missy Shay, Jean Stringham, Gail Pettiford Willett.
Fiesta, by Carol Brown
Original design.
Featured Wall Quilt 40 x 56
New York Beauty traditional block plus variations. I have used these blocks in several quilts, always with bright colors. These colors in this quilt reminded me of Mexico, so I named it Fiesta.
September Becomes October and Events Become Memories, by Carol Brown
Original design.
Featured Wall Quilt
Many people were making quilts in response to the bombing of the World Trade Center in 2001. I could not conceive of any pictorial response, so I just started thinking in colors. Black for smoke, red for fire, et cetera. I finally started putting fabric together in triangles and I found that making the wall hanging eased my pain.
Urban Church, by Carol Brown
Original design.
Featured Wall Quilt 45 x 55
My church needed something to hang in front of some ugly pipes in the parish hall. Since we are in downtown Boston, something representing an urban church was clearly needed. My quilting group at Arlington Street Church helped with the design and I made this wall hanging during the summer. Go Sox. The quilt group includes Liz Balcom, Helen Ewer, Carmen Griggs and Diane Miller.
Whatever, by Carol Brown
Original design.
Featured Wall Quilt 15 x 20
I made this hanging for a guild challenge. It was supposed to be a view of Lake Winnepesaukee, where the quilt holds a spring getaway each year, but one viewer thought it was an African village and another thought it was Vermont mountains. So it is whatever you want it to be.
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